South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive case study: Totara Learn success story

About

South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) is responsible for the co-ordination of public transport in South Yorkshire. Their role is to encourage the maximum use of public transport and to promote growth of the public transport network.

They work closely with transport service operators, local councils and other key stakeholders to develop the network and services across the county.

What did SYPTE choose?

• Totara Learn LMS implemented and supported by Learning Nexus.
• Off-the-shelf digital learning content - ranges including health and safety, legislation and ethics, workplace skills, food safety and management skills.
• Use of our authoring tool to create and edit their own bespoke courses.

Why did SYPTE choose Totara Learn

Jamie Lodge, Learning and Development Officer for SYPTE, describes the process of choosing a learning management system as a “three step process designed to create a fluid selection criteria”. This was so SYPTE could follow their own public sector guidelines, as well as having a fair and legal selection process.

Learning Nexus were able to demonstrate all of the above steps and could fulfill SYPTE’s requirements with an implementation of the Totara Learn LMS, digital learning content, training, and support. In particular, SYPTE was most impressed by the
flexibility and accessibility of the Totara platform, and the ability to control the look and feel of it.

An example of this would be the reporting. The one-click report function proved much better than SYPTE’s previous system, which involved a lot of editing - something that Jamie described as “time-consuming and annoying.” Line managers having access to their teams was also a positive selling point.

Key successes

The Totara Learn LMS has enabled line managers to manage their teams much more closely.

This benefit has come into its own with SYPTE’s recent GDPR project, as the functionality ensured everybody was responsible and had full access to report on their own teams.

Jamie said: “It has enabled me to report on a weekly basis to the Senior Management team with an easy to follow report that allows us to show that compliance has been met.”

The way the system is built allows SYPTE to add in classroom-based training with full location details and the ability to add and print attendance lists.

“Being able to personalise the notifications that go out to users is a great feature. Both at course level and in classroom training, the ability to edit is a huge bonus, giving us the opportunity to improve people’s perception of digital learning,” Jamie concludes.

Working with Learning Nexus

In terms of the Learning Nexus approach, Jamie explains how the implementation team have supported him throughout the project.

"As a customer, your impression of the people who ‘sell’ the system is an impression of the system itself and an insight into the experience you will have going forward. My impression of the implementation team from the first meeting has been nothing but positive. The team has been great as my contact for anything I wanted to add or change on the system, they have never said no, and always make time to discuss things with me.

 

Having an Account Manager helped for those times that I needed a straightforward answer or clarification in a situation. Meanwhile, the team also provided two days of training on site prior to our launch which was a hands-on way of going through the system functionality.”

What has the reaction been?

Jamie delivered some drop-in sessions to introduce the new system before the official launch date. The initial reaction was positive, as the look and feel was much more up to date and nicely tied in with their upgrade to Windows 10.

Navigation and ease of reporting came across as good selling points with managers. Also being able to log any system issues with a dedicated support team is an essential part of the expectations from Learning Nexus.

What about learning content?

“As part of the contract, we requested some mandatory training content to be included. I was able to view some of these before the system was launched and by doing, it reaffirmed my decision on choosing Learning Nexus.

 

The mandatory courses are part of our health and safety expectations as an employer and we had to maintain this with our new LMS. As part of the development process, the eLearning system is the first point of call to see if we have anything to support our staff development."

The final thought

SYPTE are pleased that the overall effect of Totara on their organisation has been hugely positive.

Jamie states that it’s been especially positive as the “system does what it’s supposed to and looks like something that has been built in 2018 not 2008”, highlighting the modern look and feel that Totara has compared to other learning management systems on the market.

SYPTE also continue to stress the importance of the ease of Totara’s admin functionality and the support available from Learning Nexus to enable L&D to keep training running smoothly.

Have you got an impactful project that you would like design or animation support for? Contact today on hello@learningnexus.co.uk to find out more.